More than 250 jurisdictions have veterans treatment courts, which are designed to get help to veterans with brain injuries or PTSD and who are in trouble with the law. Watch video
As New Jersey prepares to honor military veterans Wednesday, state officials are taking the first steps that could provide one thing many veterans say has been missing for them when they return home -- justice in context of their service.
A state task force looking at veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and their involvement in the legal system heard its first testimony last week. Members hope the process will lead to the establishment of veterans treatment courts, which are designed to consider the psychological trauma many veterans experience and how to help them, issues often overlooked in the current court system.
Take the example of Jimmy Connors.
Connors was a proud member of the Air Force and Teaneck's fire department, for which he worked when he wasn't serving one of his seven tours of service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So proud was he that Connors sent to Teaneck a flag that had flown over Baghdad, asking that it be raised in the township, council minutes from 2009 show.
But while Connors wore the brave face of a serviceman, on the inside he was boiling over, he said. "Everything," Connors said, "was eating me from the inside out."
Back home, the New Milford man drank heavily, a common method of self-medicating for those suffering from PTSD. While drunk one day, Connors threatened a fellow fire fighter and eventually was forced to resign, he told the task force.
Connors said he felt he never had a chance to explain his bad behavior adequately, feeling he was labeled as just another out-of-control hothead soldier.
James Connors (Tim Darragh | NJ Advance Media) In court, he said, "my military service worked against me... I went from hero to zero."
If he had the opportunity to go through a veterans treatment court, Connors said, he might have been able to pay his legal penalty and get help for his alcohol abuse and its underlying causes without losing his job.
The task force will hold another public hearing Dec. 4 in Stone Harbor. It is scheduled to present a report with recommendations to Gov. Christie by May.
While New Jersey is only beginning the process that could lead to the establishment of treatment court, such courts are flourishing throughout the United States. More than 250 veterans treatment courts exist across the country, according to Justice for Vets, a Washington-based nonprofit that promotes development of veterans treatment courts.
The first one was established nearly eight years ago in Buffalo, N.Y. by Judge Robert Russell, who one day asked two court staffers who happened to be veterans to have a hallway chat with another veteran in treatment. The man appeared in court downcast and nearly non-verbal, seeming to resist help, Russell said.
The two court workers spoke about their military service and concern for the man's welfare, Russell said.
Twenty minutes later, the man stood before Russell in parade rest posture and told the judge he needed to try harder in his treatment program.
"That totally had taken me aback," Russell said, calling the event a revelation.
It was the veteran-to-veteran peer counseling that snapped the man back to life, Russell said.
While veterans treatment courts work under their own local rules, volunteer veteran mentors are a big component in the program in most jurisdictions, Russell said.
"They tap into the values that were instilled in them by the military," said Chris Deutsch, a spokesman for Justice for Vets.
How veterans treatment courts across the country organize themselves and account for costs varies by jurisdiction. The number of veterans in a region and the court's scope all drive court costs. Courts are funded through grants or county budgets, and Tennessee earlier this year became the first state to set up a dedicated funding stream for veterans treatment courts.
In Buffalo, considered a model program, once a veteran is identified after being arrested, a VA health officer does an assessment to see if the individual is suitable for treatment court.
If accepted, the police, prosecutor, defense team, counseling representatives and others community organizations consult before deciding whether the individual should go into treatment court. In many cases, the individual can use existing VA health systems for their treatment.
MORE: For vets in trouble, a pathway to help
Veterans who commit violent crimes won't be allowed to go through treatment court in some jurisdictions, said Deutsch.
Veterans treatment courts "are not a get-out-of-jail-free card," he said. "We have to hold these men and women accountable. However, accountability can be more than throwing someone in a jail cell."
According to Russell, the individuals are under the court's supervision for at least a year, and some may remain under medical supervision indefinitely.
He estimated that close to 400 veterans have gone through his court. Fewer than 10 percent of them re-offended, Russell said.
That's in line with one of the first published studies looking at veterans treatment courts. Published earlier this year in Community Mental Health, the study of 86 veterans who went through treatment courts in Ohio showed significant improvements in their mental health, sleep, family functioning and less substance abuse. Only nine individuals were re-arrested during their time in treatment, it found.
The lack of larger formal studies showing what works and what doesn't in treatment courts troubles Western Oregon University sociologist William B. Brown. In many jurisdictions, he said, prosecutors decide who can go into the veterans court, and some are "cherry picking" the easiest cases to resolve, he said.
"There's no long-term research to find out, 'What are you accomplishing?''" he said.
In addition, Brown said that without a set of national standards and a certification system, communities won't know if their treatment court is as effective as it could be, or if it's effective at all.
Studies also have yet to determine the cost savings of treatment courts, but Russell, who also founded drug and mental-health courts in Buffalo, said he expects savings to be similar to those courts. Drug courts, for instance, cut recidivism by up to 26 percent and save the public more than $12,000 per individual, according to the National Institute of Justice.
Cost issues aside, there are plenty of veterans who could find themselves in need of their services. Veterans from the Vietnam War frequently appear before Russell and he's even had in his court a veteran who had served in the Korean War.
Indeed, task force Chairman Herb Worthington, who served in Vietnam in 1970, said long after he came home, his anger could be stoked "instantaneously." Worthington for years "didn't want to hear" that he had a problem, but eventually was convinced to go the VA Hospital in Lyons for treatment. When the U.S. attacked Iraq in 2003, he said, the television images once again triggered the sleeplessness and anxiety common to combat veterans.
Herb Worthington listens to testimony at a recent public hearing on veterans with PTSD. (Tim Darragh | NJ Advance Media) With Americans still in war zones overseas, more cases of explosive behavior by veterans are waiting to happen.
"It's possible we haven't seen the real effects of these conditions on the 2.7 million veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," Deutsch said.
Studies showed that between 5-15 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were suffering from PTSD, and there was "scant" data on soldiers with traumatic brain injuries, the RAND Corporation said in a 2008 paper.
It's also not known how many veterans with brain injuries, PTSD and other mental health issues are arrested, since many police agencies do not ask whether an individual served in the military, Deutsch said.
Worthington said the state could help by listing an individual's status as a veteran on driver's licenses. That could assist police during an investigation -- the kind of event that could cause a mentally suffering veteran to "explode," he said.
Soldiers like him, taught to be tough warriors, bottled up their anxieties and anguish, Worthington said. But eventually it comes out.
"These guys," he said, "really are messed up and troubled."
Tim Darragh may be reached at tdarragh@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @timdarragh. Find NJ.com on Facebook.